You have two seconds (Page 2): I like to set my P&S on the dash.....hit the button every so often, not knowing what I might capture....or point it out the driver's window and do the...

Singing Swan

dpullum wrote:

Oh, driveby shooting with a digital!!

I like to set my P&S on the dash.....hit the button every so often, not knowing what I might capture....or point it out the driver's window and do the same thing. I usually do this when I'm back home on slow roads still made of dirt, and I know it's not the best way to come up with an awe inspiring photograph, but I have so so much fun looking at them later and sometimes, sometimes, there's a winner there.

Besides...what's the whole point of photography if you can't have fun with it!!

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

dragonswing wrote:

There have been a lot of missed pictures---even though I had my camera with me, because I always see something interesting while driving and there is no place to pull my car over.

This is my curse... I drive a school bus (must have been really evil in an earlier life!) and drive it up the side of a mountain. We go through the woods, and it is amazing what I see. Unfortunately, even if I *had* my camera along, there is no way I can stop and do anything with it.

Going back later in the car presents the same problem you have; these are only 2 lane roads with nowhere to pull over safely...

billjohdoittoday Loc: Arkansas

DEC wrote:

Photographic memory !!! I have been caught without a camera on many occasions also.

I found a solution that works for me ... I offer this solution to all of the good folks here. The solution: Always keep a camera on hand. I have a Panasonic ZS-20 "shirtpocket camera" that's in my pocket any time I leave the house. And almost every time I leave the house I also have a Panasonic Lumix GX-1 with a 25mm (50mm equivalent) lens. (Oftentimes other lenses for this camera are also in the car with me.)

As to spotting pictures while you drive, break the law now and then. I've occasionally pulled off into the breakdown lane of the interstate to grab a good shot. And it's no crime, most of the time, to pull over on a surface street for a good photo.

I suspect all that's needed to stop missing pictures is to adjust your attitude about how important the picture is to you.

jbelmira

When my kids were little, my wife and I kept a Pentax Spotmatic ready to shoot sitting on the refrigerator. We captured many wonderful moments... (so now you can figure out I'm a senior if I owned a Spotmatic).
Cheers.

Jim_In_Plymouth Loc: Plymouth MN

Robert I. Tepper wrote:

A famous photojournalist once told me (as he viewed me carrying a large camera bag stuffed with a dozen pieces of eq.) "Robert, carry all that baggage if you like, but keep a point-and-shoot camera in your shirt pocket so you won't miss the great pictures"

I shoot with a DSLR and my wife uses a bridge camera. I cannot recount the times that she has gotten the picture while I was trying to select and mount the correct lens. And right now my 140 to 600 is off to be repaired, so you know the long shot is not going to happen for a couple of weeks.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

billjohdoittoday wrote:

As to spotting pictures while you drive, break the law now and then. I've occasionally pulled off into the breakdown lane of the interstate to grab a good shot. And it's no crime, most of the time, to pull over on a surface street for a good photo.

I suspect all that's needed to stop missing pictures is to adjust your attitude about how important the picture is to you.

Or how important your job or your life is to you... I would be fired if I pulled the bus over to take photographs. Besides, where is it safe to stop on a road like this one:

(these were taken from a dashcam video which has a very wide field of view - the road is not as wide as it looks! Also, this winds up the side of a mountain, it is never straight for more than about 50 yards at a time)

billjohdoittoday Loc: Arkansas

Bloke wrote:

Or how important your job or your life is to you...

Well . . . yes . . . I suppose those might also be considerations, sometimes. :(

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Every one of my shots that gets away, would have been a prize winner !
But why are all the ones I DO get so crappy?
I used to blame Mr. Murphy.
But I'm starting to realize, that maybe, just maybe, it's not entirely his fault !?
SS

billjohdoittoday Loc: Arkansas

SharpShooter wrote:

Every one of my shots that gets away, would have been a prize winner !
But why are all the ones I DO get so crappy?
I used to blame Mr. Murphy.
But I'm starting to realize, that maybe, just maybe, it's not entirely his fault !?
SS

Perhaps you're just waiting for The Perfect Camera which not only captures light, but also captures the picture you envision. :shock:

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

I once missed a hilarious shot of two Los Angeles Times photographers being thieving pigs at a press conference. The US Olympic team did an exhibition event in Anaheim and there was a press conference afterwards. The event was sponsored by Reese's candy and at the press conference there were big salad bowls full of packaged Reese's peanut cups and other tasty junk food. Civilized and polite people helped themselves to a snack or several. But the two Los Angeles Times photographers upended the huge bowls and filled all the empty space in their camera bags with the tasty treats. Unfortunately I was busy taking a few shots of the beautiful and charming Dominique Dawes and some other Olympians and was not set up to get the LAT Piggie snapshot.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Los-Angeles-Shooter wrote:

Unfortunately I was busy taking a few shots of the beautiful and charming Dominique Dawes and some other Olympians and was not set up to get the LAT Piggie snapshot.

LA, there were three things going on here.
One, one day, you too will have your priorities straight.
And two, you being a rookie, didn't realize that a chance at free Reese's only comes around once every four years!!
And three, EVERYBODY got the beautiful Miss Dawes. NOBODY got the LAT reporters. That was the real shot that day!
But LA, don't dismay, you too will learn. :lol:
SS

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

SharpShooter wrote:

LA, there were three things going on here.
One, one day, you too will have your priorities straight.
And two, you being a rookie, didn't realize that a chance at free Reese's only comes around once every four years!!
And three, EVERYBODY got the beautiful Miss Dawes. NOBODY got the LAT reporters. That was the real shot that day!
But LA, don't dismay, you too will learn. :lol:
SS

Frankly you're right. Better judgment comes with experience. I attended an outdoor graduation ceremony at UC Berkeley years ago. In the middle of one of the sinecured academics' pompous speech, a biplane appeared towing a banner criticizing the politicized denial of a professor's tenure. Though I had gotten a tipoff moments before I foolishly took my first shots of the airplane rather than the enraged idiotic expression of the pompous speaker (I believe he was the head of Boalt Hall school of law at UCLA)...

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

Being that I am also teaching photography - There is one (sometimes more) who will ask The Question =

"When do you know you are about to presented with a "Kodak moment"?

Meaning = how long does it take for you to realize that The Photograph is NOW...

I tell them "about two seconds... And it takes Three Seconds to MISS it..."

Or I see one of the students when on any given "shoot", with their lens cap on - or camera OFF - or in the "gadget bag"...

I simply say You are gonna Miss The Shot....

And they say... "What Shot?" ....

I say the one that you just missed....
--------------------------------------
I forget just what famous photographer stated this but....

"It is a poor excuse for a photographer Not to Get a GOOD image every five feet from where he stands of every moment of every day of their life."

And I too carry a pocket camera with me all the time... A Panasonic LX-7 .. I like this one as It shoots in RAW as well as jpg.

Now look around where You are NOW......

What shot did you just miss by reading this ;-)

Wonderful stuff here....

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Los-Angeles-Shooter wrote:

I attended an outdoor graduation ceremony at UC Berkeley

(I believe he was the head of Boalt Hall school of law at UCLA)...

LA, anybody that has not been in your shoes, is not realy a photographer.

And a teeny, wheeny correction. Boalt is at Cal. GO BEARS !!! :thumbup:
SS

achesley Loc: SW Louisiana

One of the reasons my last new camera was a G15 is the easy of getting it out of the tankbag,turning it on and banging a picture by just pointing and shooting, and with just the left hand w/ gloves on for the most of the time. It's faster than the G12 I carried round on my bikes for the last 3 years. I take many pictures on the move. I fought with a Minolta Dimage z 1/3/6 for years and still have the z6 in my truck. My Sony A57 with the 18/250 Sonysal lens <<< no way. And, I still miss many many. Not having enough time to get it out and on and snapped. Even if you make a u turn , the first image is lost to the vapors of the mind. ;-)